Kenny Florian’s previous attempts at challenging for a UFC title have been unsuccessful, but he believes that an intense and successful training camp will be a major contribution in his chance to defeat Jose Aldo. Florian, who recently moved to 14…
Kenny Florian‘s previous attempts at challenging for a UFC title have been unsuccessful, but he believes that an intense and successful training camp will be a major contribution in his chance to defeat Jose Aldo.
Florian, who recently moved to 145 pounds, will meet Aldo in the co-main event at UFC 136. “Ken Flo” made a good impression in his debut and walked away with the win over Diego Nunes at UFC 130, ultimately earning the shot at Aldo.
In his blog on ESPN.com, Florian said he is confident in his training camp and preparation ahead of his bout against the Brazilian.
“I’ve just finished a month of training three times a day, six times a week, so it’s fair to say my body is in optimum condition right now,” he said.
“The amount of work I put in to each training camp has grown and grown and I’m always intent on outdoing my opponent.”
Florian’s has failed in his last two opportunities at challenging for the UFC lightweight title; therefore, he hopes his chances at featherweight will serve him better. Florian challenged Sean Sherk and BJ Penn, only to come up short against both champions, respectively.
Since then, Florian has evolved as a fighter and will look to utilize his overall skills in order to finally earn himself recognition as a title contender and wear a UFC title.
“Ultimately, the end goal for all fighters is to lift that UFC belt. That is the thing that drives us in training and forces us to become the best fighter we can possibly be,” he said.
“I know that I need to be fitter, faster, sharper and better than I have ever been before on Oct. 8. And that is exactly what I have been working towards for the past few months and years.”
After a blockbuster week that saw UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones successfully defend his belt at UFC 135 against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, there were plenty of other news items that took center stage.UFC President Dana White briefly announce…
After a blockbuster week that saw UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones successfully defend his belt at UFC 135 against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, there were plenty of other news items that took center stage.
UFC President Dana White briefly announced a highly-anticipated showdown between light heavyweights Phil Davis and Lyoto Machida, only to pull back the news almost immediately.
Consensus No. 1-ranked female fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will return to Strikeforce to defend her 145-pound title on Dec. 17.
UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre announced that he will be training with former challenger Dan Hardy in preparation for his UFC 137 title defense against Carlos Condit.
Rob Tatum is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. You can also find Rob’s work at TheMMACorner.com. For anything related to MMA, you can follow Rob on Twitter @RobTatumMMA.
Dave Herman tested positive for marijuana in his system which led to his fight being yanked off the UFC 136 card, but Herman told MMAFighting‘s Ben Fowlkes that he doesn’t actually smoke weed. Herman said:.
Dave Herman tested positive for marijuana in his system which led to his fight being yanked off the UFC 136 card, but Herman told MMAFighting‘s Ben Fowlkes that he doesn’t actually smoke weed. Herman said:
“I do not smoke marijuana. I can’t say I’m not around it. I live in California. Pretty much everyone out here smokes weed. Maybe I need to pick my friends a little better. I don’t know.”
This lead me to wonder if maybe Herman who has probably been cutting weight recently, may have gotten a late night sweet tooth which lead him into a buddy’s kitchen where a delicious plate of brownies on a counter got the better of him. Or maybe… he was in a car with a bunch of potheads. I did some intense research which consisted of me googling the question i actually titled this post with: “can a contact high get you a positive result on a drug test?” and I found this answer from what I will put my reputation on the line for and say is a reliable resource called Drugs.Blurtit.com and it says:
Generally, no you cannot test positive for marijuana if you didn’t smoke it. Second-hand smoke is not concentrated enough to show up in your system; however if you are in an air-tight environment such as a car or even a closet where companions are smoking and you inhaled deeply, then yes you can test positive.
So there you have it. Poor Dave Herman got smoked out in a car. Life is unfair.
Filed under: UFCDave “Pee Wee” Herman said he was “surprised” to learn he’d failed a pre-licensing drug test before his scheduled UFC 136 bout with Mike Russow, and while he insists he never ingested any banned substances, he’s readying himself for a s…
Dave “Pee Wee” Herman said he was “surprised” to learn he’d failed a pre-licensing drug test before his scheduled UFC 136 bout with Mike Russow, and while he insists he never ingested any banned substances, he’s readying himself for a suspension just the same.
“I do not smoke marijuana,” Herman told MMA Fighting. “I can’t say I’m not around it. I live in California. Pretty much everyone out here smokes weed. Maybe I need to pick my friends a little better. I don’t know.”
When asked if it was his belief that simply being in the presence of marijuana smoke might have caused the positive test result, Herman replied, “Like I said, I see people smoking weed every day.”
Susan Stanford, of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, told MMA Fighting that medical privacy laws prevented her from disclosing any information about Herman’s drug test results, but confirmed that “he was denied a license.”
Herman initially told Clinch Gear Radio that he’d been asked to take a second drug test after the lab where he was tested told him that it had lost his first sample. Stanford explained that the testing is done entirely through private labs, and the commission never has possession of the sample, but would have likely been informed if a sample had been lost.
On Thursday, Herman told MMA Fighting that the lab had asked him to submit two separate samples so that it could test one for drugs of abuse and another for steroids.
“When I talked to Texas they said that there wasn’t enough of the first sample to do both tests,” said Herman. “The first sample they just tested one thing and the second sample they tested something else. …They just said the first one was positive for marijuana. The second one wasn’t positive for anything.”
What surprised Herman most, he said, was when he read internet reports that claimed he had tested positive for both marijuana and steroids.
“It got worse and worse. The first article I clicked on just quoted me from my interview and it looked pretty much right. The second one was like, ‘[Herman] denies use of steroids.’ Then the third one was like, positive for marijuana and steroids. I’m like, how did you jump from that to that to that?”
The UFC’s Marc Ratner said he had no information as of yet, and hadn’t seen anything on paper regarding Herman’s tests or what possible repercussions he might be facing.
For his part, Herman is expecting to be suspended on top of losing his chance to fight Russow in Houston on October 8.
“I don’t think there’s anything I can really do,” he said. “Obviously, this fight’s already gone. Even if I go in today and pass everything, this fight’s already done. Pretty much I guess I just wait. They said I’ll probably have a short suspension. From researching other guys who have tested positive, the max suspension they’ve ever seen is 30 days. So I guess I wait 30 days and pass a drug test and try to get another fight lined up.”
In the meantime, Herman said he’s struggling to get over the disappointment of spending weeks preparing for the fight only to see the opportunity disappear and get replaced with the threat of disciplinary action.
“I was feeling good, was in really great shape,” he said. “I didn’t really want to get up and go to practice this morning, but I did anyway. I guess I just have a little extra time to hone everything and get better.”
Anthony Pettis is one of the most talented and electrifying fighters in the sport today. Pettis (13-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) is widely known for “The Showtime Kick” which helped him capture the WEC lightweight championship and made him a household n…
Anthony Pettis is one of the most talented and electrifying fighters in the sport today.
Pettis (13-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) is widely known for “The Showtime Kick” which helped him capture the WEC lightweight championship and made him a household name.
While his UFC debut didn’t go quite as planned, as he dropped a decision to Clay Guida, Pettis returns to action opposite Jeremy Stephens (20-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) at UFC 136, and he’s coming to put his name back in title contention.
“I’m extremely excited,” Pettis recently told BleacherReport.com. “My last outing in the UFC wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I got to kinda go in there and just reinvent my name. I want to get in there and remind people that I am a number one contender. I’m going to be champion, it’s only a matter of time.”
Pettis will attempt to regain the momentum he owned heading into his organizational debut when he faces Stephens on Spike TV.
The Roufusport trained lightweight intends to duplicate the success he had following his first career loss in the WEC and he plans on avoiding the judges at all costs.
“Yeah, the first loss it was only second fight in the WEC, so I wasn’t Anthony Pettis, I was just a young kid trying to make it in the MMA world,” Pettis said. “So, for me that first fight I knew I had to prove myself and prove to myself and everybody that I’m a talented fighter and that I’m going to be here for a long time. So, after that first loss it was just getting back to the drawing board and getting ready for what’s coming next.
“Both of my losses are decisions, I hate losing that way so it’s just one of things I gotta get myself winning these fights and not letting them go to the judges. Not saying I didn’t lose the fights, it sucks to lose in a decision manner, I’d rather get knocked out or submitted and know I lost than go to the judges. So, for me it’s one of those things I have to get better at and finish fights. No more letting it go to the judges.”
While no fighter enjoys losing, the loss provided Pettis with the opportunity to return to training without a mass amount of attention following his every move.
In preparation for the heavy handed Stephens, Pettis focused on improving his overall skillset under the tutelage of head coach Duke Roufus and jiu-jitsu world champion Jo Z at his home gym of Roufusport in Wisconsin.
“I’ve been getting better everywhere,” Pettis said. “I mean like a lot of people said I didn’t have any takedown defense at the Guida fight, but like I said it was just a wrong game plan for me, I was going in there to knock the guy out when I should’ve picked him apart and do what I do best and I got taken down a lot.
“So, I didn’t go back and say ‘Oh my god, I gotta work on my takedown defense.’ I have good takedown defense, I have decent wrestling, I can definitely be better, I can be better everywhere. So, I just focused on getting better everywhere, everyday and I got better guys challenging me now in the gym and teammates that are pushing me.”
That being said, Pettis has taken the necessary steps to ensure that he claims victory on October 8 and he plans on displaying the hard work he’s put in during training.
“I got great coaches,” Pettis said. “I got a black belt from Brazil Jo Z, he’s a world champion in the Brown and Black belt division. Just the background I came from, I learn very fast and I started as a standup fighter but like you said I got more submissions than knockouts.
“This fight coming in, I’m just looking to finish the fight wherever it goes. It doesn’t matter if he wants to stand and try to trade with me or if he takes me down. I’m just looking to finish fights, no more just letting it go to the judges or me getting complacent in there.”
For additional information on UFC 136, follow Joshua Carey onTwitter.
We are only one week away from witnessing one of the most anticipated UFC events of the year.Fans will finally see the culmination of a back-and forth trilogy between lightweights Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, as they are set to headline UFC 136.Edga…
We are only one week away from witnessing one of the most anticipated UFC events of the year.
Fans will finally see the culmination of a back-and forth trilogy between lightweights Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, as they are set to headline UFC 136.
Edgar and Maynard have fought on two previous occasions. Their latest encounter ended in controversy, as both competitors fought to a unanimous draw at UFC 125. After reoccurring injuries and setbacks to both fighters, Edgar and Maynard now look to square off in a rubber match to determine the undisputed UFC lightweight champion.
Also on the card is a co-main event matchup that will see UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo defend his title against Kenny Florian, plus a middleweight bout featuring Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann.
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan previews the upcoming card with a complete breakdown of the two title bouts, along with in-depth analysis and exclusive interviews.
UFC 136 is next weekend, live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Kenny Florian‘s previous attempts at challenging for a UFC title have been unsuccessful, but he believes that an intense and successful training camp will be a major contribution in his chance to defeat Jose Aldo. 
